National News

Lukashenko attending Victory parade in Red Square in Moscow

MOSCOW, 24 June (BelTA) – Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko and sons are attending the Victory Day parade taking place in Red Square in Moscow on 24 June. The parade marks the 75th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, BelTA reports.

The foreign dignitaries attending the military parade include the presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Serbia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, high-ranking officials of some other countries, ambassadors of the countries that were the Allies in WW2. Invitations were also sent to heads of some international organizations, including Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission Mikhail Myasnikovich and Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Stanislav Zas.

The parade in Red Square features the military from 13 countries, including a parade unit from Belarus.

This year the Victory Day parade in Russia had to be rescheduled from its original date, 9 May, to 24 June, over the coronavirus pandemic. The Russian president chose this date as on 24 June 1945 the momentous Moscow Victory Day Parade was held.

BelTA reported earlier that in Belarus the army parade to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Great Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 took place on 9 May. About 3,000 military personnel and over 150 vehicles took part in the parade. As many as 36 aircraft and helicopters flew over the nation's capital. During the parade Aleksandr Lukashenko said: “This holiday is sacred for us. The tragedy of the Belarusian nation, which bore the titanic burden of losses and destruction of the cruelest war of the 20th century, is incomparable to any hardships of today.”

Prior to the visit to Moscow the head of state took part in a series of commemorative events. On 20 June Aleksandr Lukashenko participated in the opening a memorial complex in the village of Borki, Kirovsk District. The complex was erected in memory of the burned-down villages of Mogilev Oblast. The following day Aleksandr Lukashenko visited Svetlogorsk District where the memorial complex Ola was unveiled at the site of the village of Ola, which was burned down by the Nazi during the war. On 22 June, the day of the start of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, the head of state went to Brest. Aleksandr Lukashenko visited the Brest Fortress where a commemorative event traditionally took place at the hour of the beginning of the war.